Occurring
for 30 mins
Venue
Address
The Temple Church, Temple, London EC4Y 7BB, EC4Y 1BB, United Kingdom
Thomas Allery
John Stanley (1712-86)
- Voluntary op 5 no 8
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621)
- Unter den Linden grüne
William Selby (1738-98)
- Voluntary no 8 in A
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
- Toccata and fugue in D minor
In addition to his duties running the music programme at Temple Church, Thomas Allery maintains an active career as a keyboard player, in demand both as a soloist and continuo player, and equally at home on and harpsichord. Recent concert engagements have taken him to festivals at Buxton, St Albans International Organ Festival, Paxton, Orkney, Cadogan Hall, Lichfield Festival, and The Grange opera. In 2024 he was sponsored by the Eric Thompson to make a film of historic music from the City of London entitled ‘Sounds of the Square Mile’.
Thomas is in regular demand as a continuo player on organ and harpsichord, regularly performing with the Sixteen and with the award-winning chamber ensemble, Ensemble Hesperi. With this group, he has performed, broadcast and recorded widely. This ensemble has a reputation for its imaginative programming and its specialism in Scottish baroque repertoire. With Hesperi, Thomas was a ‘Live Music Now’ artist, delivering regular workshops in care homes, day centres and SEND schools across the UK, including projects leading choral residency programmes in care homes. In 2014-15, Thomas was a Junior Fellow in Harpsichord and Continuo at the Royal College of Music, and in 2019, he was selected as a Britten-Pears young artist, performing Bach cantatas under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe at Snape Maltings.
Today, Thomas is an advocate for the performance of figured bass and is passionate about its use as a pedagogical tool for music students. He is currently undertaking research into how seventeenth and eighteenth centuries continuo treatises can be adapted for use in keyboard education today and presented on this at the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini’s Conference on Basso continuo in 2021. Thomas currently is a professor of basso continuo in the Historical Performance department at the Royal College of Music.
Having initially studied Music at the University of Oxford, he subsequently graduated with distinction from the Masters programme at the Royal College of Music before being awarded a scholarship to study for an Artist Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied with Carole Cerasi and James Johnstone. In 2016 he was supported by the Eric Thompson trust to study historic organ repertoire with Erwin Wiersinga at the Martinikirk in Groningen.
The Temple Church organ
The organ in the Temple church was built in 1924 for the Castle of Glen Tanar, Aberdeenshire, and installed in 1954 in the rebuilt church (following war damage), the gift of Lord Glentanar. The organ case was designed by W. E. Godfrey and installed in 1966 and is modelled on drawings of the Temple’s Father Smith organ of 1688, showing the crests of Inner and Middle Temple. The organ was rebuilt in 2013 by Harrison and Harrison of Durham and has 66 stops over four manuals.
John Stanley (1712-86)
- Voluntary op 5 no 8
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621)
- Unter den Linden grüne
William Selby (1738-98)
- Voluntary no 8 in A
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
- Toccata and fugue in D minor
In addition to his duties running the music programme at Temple Church, Thomas Allery maintains an active career as a keyboard player, in demand both as a soloist and continuo player, and equally at home on and harpsichord. Recent concert engagements have taken him to festivals at Buxton, St Albans International Organ Festival, Paxton, Orkney, Cadogan Hall, Lichfield Festival, and The Grange opera. In 2024 he was sponsored by the Eric Thompson to make a film of historic music from the City of London entitled ‘Sounds of the Square Mile’.
Thomas is in regular demand as a continuo player on organ and harpsichord, regularly performing with the Sixteen and with the award-winning chamber ensemble, Ensemble Hesperi. With this group, he has performed, broadcast and recorded widely. This ensemble has a reputation for its imaginative programming and its specialism in Scottish baroque repertoire. With Hesperi, Thomas was a ‘Live Music Now’ artist, delivering regular workshops in care homes, day centres and SEND schools across the UK, including projects leading choral residency programmes in care homes. In 2014-15, Thomas was a Junior Fellow in Harpsichord and Continuo at the Royal College of Music, and in 2019, he was selected as a Britten-Pears young artist, performing Bach cantatas under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe at Snape Maltings.
Today, Thomas is an advocate for the performance of figured bass and is passionate about its use as a pedagogical tool for music students. He is currently undertaking research into how seventeenth and eighteenth centuries continuo treatises can be adapted for use in keyboard education today and presented on this at the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini’s Conference on Basso continuo in 2021. Thomas currently is a professor of basso continuo in the Historical Performance department at the Royal College of Music.
Having initially studied Music at the University of Oxford, he subsequently graduated with distinction from the Masters programme at the Royal College of Music before being awarded a scholarship to study for an Artist Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied with Carole Cerasi and James Johnstone. In 2016 he was supported by the Eric Thompson trust to study historic organ repertoire with Erwin Wiersinga at the Martinikirk in Groningen.
The Temple Church organ
The organ in the Temple church was built in 1924 for the Castle of Glen Tanar, Aberdeenshire, and installed in 1954 in the rebuilt church (following war damage), the gift of Lord Glentanar. The organ case was designed by W. E. Godfrey and installed in 1966 and is modelled on drawings of the Temple’s Father Smith organ of 1688, showing the crests of Inner and Middle Temple. The organ was rebuilt in 2013 by Harrison and Harrison of Durham and has 66 stops over four manuals.
Lunchtime Organ Recital: Thomas Allery
19 Nov 2025, 1:15 p.m. for 30 mins
Lunchtime Organ Recital: Thomas Allery
19 Nov 2025, 1:15 p.m. for 30 mins